T20 World Cup in South Africa highlights progress of women’s cricket

Amid the welter of men’s T20 franchise leagues, Test series, qualifying groups for T20 and ODI World Cups, a women’s T20 World Cup has been played in South Africa. It had its share of surprises, not least of which was that the host nation reached the final, having lost its opening two matches, before losing to a strong Australian team.

This was a historic achievement, the first time a South African team has reached the final of a cricket World Cup.

South Africa’s men’s team has appeared in two T20 semifinals and four ODI semifinals, one of which against Australia in 1999 ended in a tie, their opponents progressing by virtue of finishing higher in their group.

Ten teams qualified for the seventh edition of the women’s T20 World Cup in 2023, divided into two groups of five. Australia comfortably topped Group 1 by winning all four matches. New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa each garnered four points, the latter qualifying for the semifinals because of a superior net run rate. In Group 2, England also won four matches, being followed in second place by India.

Both semifinals were close run. In the first, India, chasing 173, looked to be on course for victory on 132 for the loss of four wickets after 14.3 overs. India’s captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, having scored 50, went for a straightforward second run, only to find her bat stuck in the turf as she went to run it into the crease.

In a disastrous instant, the momentum of India’s innings was broken. The remaining batters could not restore it and, despite 10 runs from the final over, Australia emerged victorious by five runs. This meant that Australia has appeared in all but the first of the eight women’s T20 finals.

South Africa chose to bat first against England in